Extractive 360

Advisory Board Members

SULEIMAN UBA GAYA

Suleiman Uba Gaya is the current Deputy President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and is one of the most versatile editors in Nigeria, with deep connections in the global media circuit. He is the only Nigerian editor to have attended twice, on invitation, the Editorial Meeting of The New York Times, and is currently a member of the highly-selective World Editors Forum’s Global Experts Group On Distributed Platforms.

He is also a member of the International Press Institute, the Global Editors Network and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. Gaya is also a member of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, the Institute of Mass Communications, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Policy and Management Development. He was also a Special Adviser (Special Duties) to the Governor of Kano State, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau (2007 – 2011).

Since his first appointment as editor in 1998, Gaya has edited a host of Nigerian publications, the most prominent of which include Leadership (daily), New Telegraph (Managing Editor), New Republican (MD/EIC), The Authority (Managing Editor), Today’s Impact (Executive Director), Concern Magazine (Executive Director), Jamhuriya Hausa newspaper (Publisher), Liberty Magazine (CEO/EIC), SkylimitT Media Group (CEO/EIC).

With his epic book, Not Fit To Live, Gaya holds the record of being the youngest son of old Kano State to have authored a novel in English language. The book was published by The Triumph newspapers in 1990. With his second book, The Trail of Blood, he became a member of the Association of Nigerian Authors and the Society of Authors, England.

He holds an MBA with the University of Liverpool (in-view). He was born in Kano on May 1, 1969, and is happily married with children.

DR SAM AMADI

Dr Sam Amadi, a strategy and policy management expert, is a senior lecturer at Baze University, Abuja and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. He was Chairman and CEO of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) between 2010 and 2015, where he led a team of management and staff through the rigorous task of reforming the Nigerian electricity industry.

His wealth of experience dates back from his early career as an editor for journals, and further developed into lecturing and advisory positions held in universities, government institutions and international organisations.

Amadi is a member, Advisory Council of Global Electricity Initiative, a body of the United Nations, member Nigerian Bar Association, member, Board of Directors, Center for Law and Social Action (CLASA), and Member, Board of Directors, Maldova Foundation, a Washington-based policy Think Tank.

He has chaired and served on various Senate technical committees including Chair, Senate Technical Committee on review of Nigeria’s Transport Sector and Chair, Senate Technical Committee on review of Nigeria Competition and consumer protection commission bill. He was a member of the Presidential Committee on Reform Processes in the Public Service in Nigeria, and was a consultant and member of the Ministerial Committee on ‘Bloody Oil’ constituted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2009.

Dr Amadi has engaged with various international organisations such as USAID, OPEC and AU. in 2007 he was a member, Nigerian Delegation to the Commonwealth and Heads of Government Summit (CHOGM) in Uganda, and was Consultant for Open Society Initiative of West Africa on Migration, Globalization, and Human Rights in 2008.

He is a Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. He has to his credit numerous publications in both local and leading international journals, and has drafted several policy papers which have been used to effect reforms across various sectors of the Nigerian economy.

He holds a PhD in Law from the Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2004), an M.P.A., (2003) and an LL.M (2001), from the same institution. He obtained a B.L from the Nigerian Law School in 1993 and an LL.B., from the University of Calabar, in 1992.

He has considerable experience of working in multi-agency environments with deep network across various national and international institutions and developmental agencies. He has engaged some of the world’s leading consultancy firms such Accenture, McKenzie, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC); United Nations Organizations such as UNICEF, UNOPS, UNDP; and International NGO’s such as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ABT Associates Intl and Resource for Development (R4D).

A graduate of Medicine and Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Ogunsakin has a Masters in Business Administration (Healthcare Management) from the Robert Kennedy College, University of Wales, UK. He is a fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (FRSPH), a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (MACHE), a member of the American institute of health and productivity management (IHPM), and the Project Management Institute (PMI).

He is the Founder/President of Global Network of Emerging Leaders in Nation Building (GLEAN), Managing Partner at South Atlantic Health Systems Ltd, and a board member, Nippon Oil and Energy Ltd. He is a leadership coach, public speaker, trainer and a facilitator per excellence.

SAFIYA MOHAMMED ADAMU

Safiya Mohammed Adamu is a development communication strategist who specializes in policy analysis and practice.

She graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University with BSc Political Science in 1985 and bagged an MBA from the same institution in 1990. She further obtained an MSC in Business Administration from ABU in 2009.

Ms Safiya also holds an MA in Community Development Policy and Practice from the University of New Hampshire, United States which she obtained in 2015. She holds several other certificates in different fields of development and she is an accredited Management trainer by the Nigerian Council of Management Development.

She was Chairman, Editorial Board of Leadership Newspapers, a former lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and a former Senior Manager at the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA).

Ms Safiya is a consultant in communication strategy, media relations and public affairs. She has deep network across the international development community and has engaged with development partners and international NGOs such as DFID (ENABLE, FOSTER), and PERL-ARC.

In her line of work, she has engaged with many State Governments amongst which are Katsina state, Zamfara State, Sokoto State, Kebbi State, Taraba State; and Federal Agencies such as SMEDAN, and RMRDC, consulting for them on various policy and strategic communications projects.

Ms Safiya is the founder and CEO of Inclusive-Access Synergy Ltd, a member of Africa Public Relations Association (APRA), a public speaker and communications coach extraordinaire.

Alim is on the advisory board of London Business School Africa Club and is the non-Executive Chair of These Executive Minds (TEXEM).

He has worked with many of the world’s top business schools and multi-national corporations to create executive development programmes for African executives. Under Alim’s leadership, Texem has trained hundreds of African senior executives including CEOs, Chairs of Boards, Ministers, permanent Secretaries and Vice-Chancellors on different management themes that help organisations to achieve their goals.

In partnership with institutions such as University of Oxford, Henley Business School, Aston Business School and Manchester Business School amongt others, Alim has developed academic curricula for executive development programmes.

He has designed and in some cases co-delivered programmes for private sector organizations and MDAs such as Airtel, UBA, Seplat, Energia, GTBank, CBN, NNPC and the PPPRA. He has also worked with multinational organizations such as Unilever, Ernst and Young, KPMG, Deloitte, Mc Kinsey & Company, Manchester United, Microsoft, Shell, Chevron, among others.

Until recently, Alim was a member of the board of Cambridge to Africa and the Director of Strategy at a consulting firm in Cambridge, advising many Russell group institutions on their internationalisation strategies.

Alim obtained his Masters in business administration at the University of Leicester and completed his doctoral studies on CSR and Strategy at Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, UK. In 2010, Alim was selected as one of the top 100 Virgin Media emerging entrepreneurs in the UK and took part in the award-winning Enterpriser programme, delivered by the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management.

Alim was among the senior executives in the UK in October 2015 who was invited to join the Lord Mayor of London, the Lord Mayor Alan Yarrow to meet Governors, CEOs and Chairs of Boards in some African countries with the intent of promoting bilateral trade between the UK and the African countries.

Ohi Alegbe

Born on 24 February, 1958, in Edo State, Ohi Alegbe, a former spokesman of the Nigerian state oil firm, NNPC, graduated from the University of Benin, Benin City, in 1980, and began a career in broadcasting in the then Bendel Broadcasting Service, after a stint in teaching.

He veered into print journalism where he rose to become a member of the Editorial Board of the African Guardian and Deputy Editor of African Concord.

He later moved into Public Relations and Advertising when he joined Quadrant (a subsidiary of Insight Communications Ltd) as Associate Director. Ohi handled some of the most successful public relations and advertising campaigns in the late 1980s such as the Benson & Hedges Golden Tones and Family Health Services’ child spacing promotions.

Ohi went into private practice when he founded Quest Communications Ltd in 1993 where he was Head Consultant and Chief Executive Officer until he was appointed Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in 2014. He later moved to head the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Division of the NNPC.

A consummate communicator, Ohi made a mark in television broadcasting as the pioneer anchor of the popular One-on-One personality interview programme of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

Ohi is one of the few all-rounder communicators who succeeded in becoming a master of all.

Ify Malo

is the CEO of Clean Technology Hub – Energy Innovation Center and Country Campaign Director for Power for All in Nigeria. She leads the Nigerian campaign to promote Distributed Renewable Energy in Nigeria and is one of the country’s leading energy access experts. She helped to set up and incubate the Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria (REAN), and has advised a range of government agencies on how best to support market growth, and engaged both the national media, the faith community and donor groups and agencies in the promotion of distributed renewable energy.

She has held Senior Policy Advisory positions on Energy Policies, Regulations and Partnerships at the Ministry of Power in Nigeria, where she led a number of policy and partnership initiatives for the Nigerian Power Sector including cultivating and managing relationship with the World Economic Forum and World Energy Council, the Europe Energy African Partnership, The West African Power Industry Convention and the African Utilities Week (AUW). She was also responsible for building, cultivating and driving public private partnerships for project delivery and implementation in the power sector. She held similar senior advisory portfolios with the Chairman/CEO of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). Her focus area lies with Global Policy; Project Design and Strategy and Stakeholder partnership initiatives.

Ify Malo is a qualified attorney with graduate degrees in Law, Business and Public Policy. She is an African Leadership Initiative PIA Fellow (2012); A Desmond Tutu Fellow (2013); a Crans Montana New Leaders for Tomorrow Fellow (2014); A Dwight Eisenhower Fellow (2015); Global Leadership Academy Fellow (2017).